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Astonishing. It’s taken 20 games, but England have finally – and most unexpectedly – arrived in the Steve Borthwick era. Rugby is an entertainment business and the penny finally dropped with the head coach this weekend.
Beating Ireland, European rugby’s long-established international rugby entertainers, was no mean feat. Even more fantastic was that the revved-up English did so by eclipsing their much-vaunted visitors 3-2 on the try count.
No sooner did they step off the bus and walk a longer distance through the crowd than was the case previously under Borthwick was there a sense that something was brewing and that the widespread predictions of English annihilation would be wide of the mark.
What transpired was one of the great Six Nations upsets, following hot on the heels of another of the great Six Nations upsets. Italy showed what can be done with a bit of chutzpah, ambushing Scotland with a defiant swagger in Rome in the day’s earlier kick-off. England took note, puffed their chests out and did likewise to Ireland with a performance that had Twickenham rocking.
Not since a November 2021 last-gasp win over South Africa had the gantry at the ground shaken like it did on Saturday. On that occasion, Marcus Smith landed a 79th-minute penalty to grab England a one-point win.
England
Ireland
Fifty-two months later, the showman rediscovered his verve and a clock-in-the-red drop goal, struck with the safety net of a penalty advantage, left Ireland gloriously beaten by a point. What theatre! Here are the RugbyPass talking points from a memorable day out in south-west London:
Fight of Earl
Andy Farrell had it nailed on at his team announcement media briefing on Thursday. Before flying over to London, he had jested in a Dublin airport hotel that morning that he wasn’t Mystic Meg, that he didn’t know what was going to happen on Saturday. And yet he did. Precisely.
He finished up that session by highlighting that the reason everyone loves the Six Nations so much was because it changes week on week. That Scotland losing the way they did to France in round two had concentrated their minds and taken England to the round three cleaners.
“I have no doubt that over the last two weeks that concentrates their mind to have another chance to have a crack at us, so you expect them [England] to be at their best and if they are at their best, they are going to be as hard as anyone in world rugby to beat.” How right the Ireland coach was.
To his chagrin’, his Irish pack found Ben Earl especially unplayable. There has been much debate that he has been a false No8, an openside lacking the heft to produce a genuine trademark No8 performance.
He arrived at Twickenham to discover he was the front cover star on the matchday programme and proceeded to justify that pedestal with a swashbuckling exhibition of elusive footwork and then genuinely blast in the contact.
The revised statistics overnight had the 60th-minute try-scorer down for 99 metres off 20 carries. For context, the next-best England forward was skipper Jamie George with 30 metres from five carries.
However, the jaw-dropping context comes when Earl’s numbers are compared with Ireland’s. The visitors used 14 forwards throughout the evening and their collective metres carrying tally was 70, 29 less than the one-man wrecking ball that was Earl.
His emergence this past year is a wonder comeback story. Just 13 months ago, Borthwick unceremoniously cut him from the squad, yet there he was, imperious against the Irish and deliciously crashing and burning their ambition of achieving back-to-back Grand Slam titles. Bravo.
? The ????? of Ben Earl ?#GuinnessM6N #ENGIRE pic.twitter.com/kCkGOLhuTe
— Guinness Men’s Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 9, 2024
Three, two, one, countdown
Funny how it all turned out. There we were shortly before the February 24 game in Edinburgh, joshing in the media seats with the man from The Guardian that England were surely set for a one-point win having started the campaign with a three-point success over Italy followed by the two-point triumph over Wales.
He liked the cut of our jib… until it all went horribly wrong from the 20th minute onwards at Murrayfield. Yet here we were two weeks further on and England were deliriously celebrating that suggested one-point win, except it had come against an opposition they were expected to get pumped by.
Most pleasing about what the English fashioned was their sudden maturity in attack. For too many matches in the dour Borthwick era, it was drearily blunt but they hit the jackpot versus the Irish, the team with supposedly the world’s best attack coming into the fixture.
Let’s salivate over some of the numbers. Linebreaks – 8-2 to England. Defenders beaten – 25-18 to England. Total passes – 163-118 to England. Offloads – 9-6 to England. Handling errors – 7-13 against Ireland. Metres carried – 786 off 112 English carries to 449 off 92 Irish carries. So much for the world’s best attack. They were shown a thing or two by Borthwick and co. Now, long may that vibrant, easier-on-the-eye approach continue. It’s been a lifetime – well 13 months – in coming. It was worth the wait, though.
Heroes just for the one day
England needed heroes and while Earl was the standout and Smith the star finisher, numerous others – the nuggety George Martin, the canny George Furbank, the rumbustious Immanuel Feyi-Waboso and the coming-of-age Ollie Lawrence – need mention here.
All too often in the Borthwick era, the balance of their piano shifters has been wrong. What took place in Paris in the agonising Rugby World Cup semi-final loss to South Africa was the template. The unsung Martin was immense that night and finally back to full fitness, he was the nuisance who drove the Irish breakdown potty.
As for Furbank, he is England’s Geordan Murphy-type player. The Leicester-based Irishman used have trouble getting Ireland selection 20-odd years ago as he was viewed by Eddie O’Sullivan as a bit of a maverick, mixing the sublime with a wounding error count.
Safety-first won out back then, but Borthwick has been willing to give Furbank a bit more rope. He is error-prone – there will be fumbles and poor decisions such as the way he gave Ireland a soft first-half lineout by stepping on the whitewash when fielding a James Lowe howitzer. But he has a knack of making it count when it clicks, following up his try at Murrayfield with another try and an assist on Saturday. That’s a strike rate Freddie Steward can only dream of.
Switching to the Feyi-Waboso and his first start. A Brian O’Driscoll comment that stuck in the mind some years ago was England picking players such as Joe Marchant was never going to put the fear of God into the Irish players. Feyi-Waboso, though, was at last a very different gravy.
His regular smart running with the ball scattered defenders scattered and he also stood up in the tackle even though the curiosity to his team’s blitz defence tactic that his man Lowe still ran in a pair of tries. That’s one for the analysis room at Pennyhill.
Meanwhile, last but not least, there was Lawrence. He’s been around for some time now without ever really looking the part. He finally became an overnight success in his 23rd appearance, the weight of the England jersey snuggly settling his shoulders in a performance where he sweetly scored and constantly mowed into Bundee Aki. It was lovely to watch.
Still in awe of this moment ?? pic.twitter.com/ECFA6zQ90U
— Guinness Men’s Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 9, 2024
Should England have won it with a try?
Here’s the craziest stat coming out of Saturday. Despite delivering three wins in the championship for the first time since 2020, England’s points difference is only an eye-watering -3. That’s not the type of number you would expect from a team hugging second place and still in the title race heading into the final day.
Here’s a question, though: rather than drop the goal to beat Ireland, should England on a penalty advantage have gone for the try that would have earned them a bonus point? The ruck that Danny Care passed to Smith from was right on the Irish line but instead of setting up another pick-and-go with the ambition of crossing the line, the centurion gave his young clubmate the chance to be the hero with the boot.
Fair play to Smith, he took the chance and celebrated joyously. But here’s the rub: England are four points behind Ireland heading into round five – not three if they had beaten the Irish with a clock-in-the-red try. It means Ireland can lose to Scotland without a bonus point and still win the title comfortably on points difference unless an England win in France comes with a bonus point.
In other words, we have a last-day title finale that is not really a title finale as there isn’t enough jeopardy in the numbers. Might a clock-in-the-red England try – rather than Smith’s droppy – have changed that?
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